Last season, the Indiana Hoosiers went 5-7. The Hoosiers lost by six points to Navy and three points to Minnesota, a win in either game would have made the Hoosiers bowl eligible. Interestingly, the other ten games were all decided by 14 points or more win or lose.

Indiana returns 17 starters and a bowl berth for the first time since 2007 seems like a realistic goal under fourth year coach Kevin Wilson. However, the defense must play much better in 2014 for that to happen.

Offense

The offense averaged 307 passing yards and 202 rushing yards and scored 38 points a game. The Hoosiers were #9 in total offense nationally and 30th or better in the other three categories.

Quarterback Nate Sudfeld started 8 games last season and Tre Roberson started 4 last year. They were going to split the snaps again but Roberson transferred to Illinois State in June. Sudfeld will be the sole starter. He completed 60.2% of his passes for 2,523 yards with 21 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.

Running back Tevin Coleman had 131 carries for 958 yards with 12 touchdowns, along with 19 catches for 193 yards. He had off-season knee surgery but did have a few carries in the Indiana spring game. He is expected to be healthy for fall camp and the regular season. The Hoosiers do have to replace Stephen Houston, now with the New England Patriots. Houston had 112 carries for 753 yards with 5 touchdowns, along with 11 catches for 113 yards. Roberson rushed for 423 yards and 5 touchdowns last season. Junior D’Angelo Roberts will get a lot more carries without Houston and Roberson. Roberts had 52 carries for 232 yards, plus a touchdown catch.

The Hoosiers must replace receivers Cody Latimer and Kofi Hughes, as well as tight end Ted Bolser. All three are in the NFL now and combined for 154 catches, 2,155 yards and 22 touchdown catches. Receiver Shane Wynn does return after making 46 catches for 633 yards and 11 touchdowns. Freshman Dominique Booth originally committed to Tennessee but changed his mind and enrolled early at Indiana, could be a star in the making.

Tackle Jason Spriggs could be in the NFL next season. The rest of the line brings back five players with starting experience.

Defense

While the offense was among the best in the country, the defense was absolutely atrocious giving up 528 yards and 38.8 points a game. Indiana played lots of high scoring shootouts but came out on the short end of too many of those games. Wilson fired defensive coordinator Doug Mallory and brought in Brian Knorr from Wake Forest to run the defense. Nine starters are back so we will see if they improve. Honestly, they can’t get much worse.

Knorr is installing a 3-4 defense at Indiana. Ralph Green will play the nose guard position. The ends will be Nick Mangieri and David Kenney. The pass rush needs to improve as they recorded only 20 sacks last season.

Indiana started three freshmen at linebacker last season, but Wilson hopes T.J. Simmons, Marcus Oliver and Clyde Newton will benefit from the experience of last year.

The secondary needs cornerbacks Tim Bennett and Michael Hunter to force more interceptions as they only had 2 total last season. Safety Antonio Allen can be a star but he underwent off-season knee surgery.

Special Teams

Aaron Del Grosso will replace kicker Mitch Ewald. Punter Erich Toth averaged 40.6 yards per punt last season. Wynn will again return kicks and punts in 2014. He returned a punt for a touchdown.

Outlook/Schedule

Indiana has non-conference home games against Indiana State and North Texas, and travels to Bowling Green and Missouri. In conference, Maryland, Michigan State, Penn State and Purdue come to Bloomington. the Hoosiers travel to Iowa, Michigan, Rutgers and Ohio State. With such a difficult schedule anything more than 6 wins would be asking a lot. If the defense doesn’t play much better then even that will be difficult.

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